***Official*** Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Information Thread *** Contains SPOILERS ***

[dceirish]

Come Dec, everyone will be saying "Disney needs to handle these GE crowds better"...

 

[ThistleMae]

I imagine kids are back to school and the last summer Holiday is over. I'm a seasonal at a campground in NH and it is dead during the week now. It's like a ghost town. Same thing every year. Once foliage season starts the town will be full of tourists. Traffic backed up for miles on the weekends. So....I'm sure Disney has it's low periods; however following along on many threads, folks seem to think there are no more slow times at Disney World anymore.

 

[yulilin3]

I honestly don't understand what this obsession over low crowds. Do you not enjoy the parks with low crowds? And if Disney is truly losing money what's that got to do with your experience?
I don't want to sound mean but i just want to understand.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I honestly don't understand what this obsession over low crowds. Do you not enjoy the parks with low crowds? And if Disney is truly losing money what's that got to do with your experience?
I don't want to sound mean but i just want to understand.

My facination/worry with the low crowd reports and the potential for management to consider Galaxy's Edge a financial failure is that they will never invest in a land to this degree again. I think it is unbelievable the level of detail in GE and just fearful this becomes Iger's Eurodisneyland and now they pull back and cut budgets of future projects

 

[EmJ]

I honestly don't understand what this obsession over low crowds. Do you not enjoy the parks with low crowds? And if Disney is truly losing money what's that got to do with your experience?
I don't want to sound mean but i just want to understand.

It’s because it is SO unexpected. Bob Iger himself said that they wouldn’t even need to market SWGE because tourists would flock there all on their own... the marketing piece, at least, turned out not to be true. And there is a 0% chance Disney invested in a very expensive boarding group tech system on two coasts just for it used for about 20 hours—combined. Maybe they’ll need it again in October or over the holidays, time will tell.

The reality is that whatever the Disney execs are saying now, they expected this land to be full to overflowing all day, every day. And it’s not. And no one can quite put their finger on why, because frankly “we” (everyone) expected it to be a madhouse too. Star Wars is SO popular. It boasts three generations of global fan base. A gazillion dollars in film and merchandise profits. So why aren’t these parks full? (<—rhetorical question ).

I don’t think anyone wants to stand in long lines and be shoulder to shoulder with the next guest, necessarily. They just can’t understand why they aren’t.

 

[Turk February]

the crowds are low because this is a low season

Exactly.

 

[MarkinNM]

My facination/worry with the low crowd reports and the potential for management to consider Galaxy's Edge a financial failure is that they will never invest in a land to this degree again. I think it is unbelievable the level of detail in GE and just fearful this becomes Iger's Eurodisneyland and now they pull back and cut budgets of future projects

The land JUST OPENED!!!

Have yet to go through a holiday or summer or even a month of the land!

From what I experienced on opening day and the 2 days afterwards, the crowds AND people were there, trust me, it was BUSY! This past week was and abnormally off because of the hurricane so dont take that week as POR. Those who keep repeating and repeating and complaining about lower crowds, say this from home, bla.......................Lets give it a year and see how things go and WDW will NEVER stop investing as remember what Walt Disney said, they are NEVER FINISHED...."“Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world. It is something that will never be finished. "

there is a 0% chance Disney invested in a very expensive boarding group tech system on two coasts just for it used for about 20 hours—combined. Maybe they’ll need it again in October or over the holidays, time will tell.

Meh........The cost for the IT on the boarding group was very minimal and SUPER LOW, I work in IT and it would take little time to add this and work out the kinks, as there are always kinks at the start, so no worry there!

 

[rteetz]

My facination/worry with the low crowd reports and the potential for management to consider Galaxy's Edge a financial failure is that they will never invest in a land to this degree again. I think it is unbelievable the level of detail in GE and just fearful this becomes Iger's Eurodisneyland and now they pull back and cut budgets of future projects

Bingo, stuff like this leads to cutbacks which often isn’t good for those who go to the parks. Entertainment is first to get cut then future projects , etc.

 

[Turk February]

It was near 3 days ago, and just because it's not in FL anymore doesn't mean it's not having an impact. It's affecting where people are coming FROM. They are having to cancel as well. The park as whole is low, not just GE

I'd say it's having a minor impact on travel from where people are coming FROM to Disney overall. The overwhelming majority of the country wasn't affected. It just seems like it's the hot "excuse" this week and last for low crowds, but we can't just keep using it as the days and weeks go by. It's slow season. Enjoy it.

 

[rteetz]

The land JUST OPENED!!!

Have yet to go through a holiday or summer or even a month of the land!

From what I experienced on opening day and the 2 days afterwards, the crowds AND people were there, trust me, it was BUSY! This past week was and abnormally off because of the hurricane so dont take that week as POR. Those who keep repeating and repeating and complaining about lower crowds, say this from home, bla.......................Lets give it a year and see how things go and WDW will NEVER stop investing as remember what Walt Disney said, they are NEVER FINISHED...."“Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world. It is something that will never be finished. "

Disney wanted and prepped for this to be busy from the day it opened through the holidays.

 

[EmJ]

The land JUST OPENED!!!

Have yet to go through a holiday or summer or even a month of the land!

From what I experienced on opening day and the 2 days afterwards, the crowds AND people were there, trust me, it was BUSY! This past week was and abnormally off because of the hurricane so dont take that week as POR. Those who keep repeating and repeating and complaining about lower crowds, say this from home, bla.......................Lets give it a year and see how things go and WDW will NEVER stop investing as remember what Walt Disney said, they are NEVER FINISHED...."“Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world. It is something that will never be finished. "



Meh........The cost for the IT on the boarding group was very minimal and SUPER LOW, I work in IT and it would take little time to add this and work out the kinks, as there are always kinks at the start, so no worry there!

”Just opened” is when a land like this should be so full it’s not able to accommodate everyone who wants in and there was no hurricane that first week. I am NOT wanting to revive the HP debate, but Hogsmeade Village was still handing out timed entry tickets three years after it opened. I fully concede Dorian was a major factor, and now it’s September. I think October will be the first real test of the land’s crowd-drawing capabilities.

 

[MarkinNM]

Disney wanted and prepped for this to be busy from the day it opened through the holidays.

as they do though ALL of the parks...????

”Just opened” is when a land like this should be so full it’s not able to accommodate everyone who wants in and there was no hurricane that first week. I am NOT wanting to revive the HP debate, but Hogsmeade Village was still handing out timed entry tickets three years after it opened. I fully concede Dorian was a major factor, and now it’s September. I think October will be the first real test of the land’s crowd-drawing capabilities.

Meaning there is NO historical crowd record for GE and add to it that the premiere ride/attraction has not opened yet RoTR, imagine if Pandora opened without FOP........Navi could not carry the place alone, give it time, this is Hurricane season and OFF season, so why complain, enjoy it!!

 

[rteetz]

as they do though ALL of the parks...????

And none of the parks are packed. Summer was light, fall has been lighter than expected as well.

 

[yulilin3]

My facination/worry with the low crowd reports and the potential for management to consider Galaxy's Edge a financial failure is that they will never invest in a land to this degree again. I think it is unbelievable the level of detail in GE and just fearful this becomes Iger's Eurodisneyland and now they pull back and cut budgets of future projects

Very well this could happen, but unfortunately it's out of my hands, so I'm not going to worry about it. There's nothing I can do.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Very well this could happen, but unfortunately it's out of my hands, so I'm not going to worry about it. There's nothing I can do.

Oh for sure and definitely think people that can be in n the parks now should just enjoy it and not stress about it ... Just giving my thoughts from someone who is thousands of miles away and cannot take advantage of it

 

[MarkinNM]

And none of the parks are packed. Summer was light, fall has been lighter than expected as well.

And the opening was during off season and also had a hurricane for the first full week of service, wow can one imagine IF the crowds were like the first day, wall to wall, elbow to elbow, little room to move, like it was in the market place and lines for everything, then the complainers would be out in full force, saying Disney should have done a better job, my experience was that Disney did and amazing job, I went in expecting the worse and got a fun, memorable time!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

The land JUST OPENED!!!

Have yet to go through a holiday or summer or even a month of the land!

From what I experienced on opening day and the 2 days afterwards, the crowds AND people were there, trust me, it was BUSY! This past week was and abnormally off because of the hurricane so dont take that week as POR. Those who keep repeating and repeating and complaining about lower crowds, say this from home, bla.......................Lets give it a year and see how things go and WDW will NEVER stop investing as remember what Walt Disney said, they are NEVER FINISHED...."“Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world. It is something that will never be finished. "



Meh........The cost for the IT on the boarding group was very minimal and SUPER LOW, I work in IT and it would take little time to add this and work out the kinks, as there are always kinks at the start, so no worry there!

Iger had to report to shareholders and analysts that attendance was down 3% in Disneyland after opening a new land they spent $1bn on ... No way there haven't been some challenging board meetings and conversations with panicked shareholders/investment firms

 

[rteetz]

And the opening was during off season and also had a hurricane for the first full week of service, wow can one imagine IF the crowds were like the first day, wall to wall, elbow to elbow, little room to move, like it was in the market place and lines for everything, then the complainers would be out in full force, saying Disney should have done a better job, my experience was that Disney did and amazing job, I went in expecting the worse and got a fun, memorable time!

I’m not just looking at WDW I’m looking at DL as well. I don’t think Disney did a bad job by any means. I just think maybe we are seeing a lot of factors playing into this including pricing, and the land opening in phases. Even more factors are playing into than that though.

 

[MarkinNM]

Iger had to report to shareholders and analysts that attendance was down 3% in Disneyland after opening a new land they spent $1bn on ... No way there haven't been some challenging board meetings and conversations with panicked shareholders/investment firms

Meh......the whole market was down, this is a company and sady thing will be up and down, just like any other company, with GE just opening and expecting it alone to make up that 3% in such a short amount of time is a crazy unrealistic expectation, also Disney did bite itself by those CRAZY price increases over all, I am sure that had a HUGE impact on the crowds. I say give it some time, no reason to panic, yet......

 

[EmJ]

Meh......the whole market was down, this is a company and sady thing will be up and down, just like any other company, with GE just opening and expecting it alone to make up that 3% in such a short amount of time is a crazy unrealistic expectation, also Disney did bite itself by those CRAZY price increases over all, I am sure that had a HUGE impact on the crowds. I say give it some time, no reason to panic, yet......

SWGE wasn’t expected to make up the 3%. Disneyland attendance actually dropped 3% from the previous year after SWGE opened. Surely, that has nothing to do with SWGE and everything to do with price increases, entertainment cuts, AP blackouts, etc., but also just as certainly, Disney expected families like mine to fill the gap left by priced-out locals, and that didn’t happen.

My family is who Disney wanted to attract. I was near to pushing “book” on a Universal vacation, when we decided to go to Disney instead, on the strength of my family’s excitement over SWGE and its more age-appropriate offerings for our preschooler. Now I’ve been bitten by the bug. Our March DL trip is booked. We will return in 2021 for Avengers Campus, and I’m softly planning back to back WDW trips in 2022 and 2023. So I am not a “hater” by any means, but I don’t think it’s bad or wrong to observe that this isn’t how The Boardroom expected this summer to go